


Another Smile

by Violet_violence



Category: One Piece
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinante Lives, Found Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2020-08-11 14:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20155201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violet_violence/pseuds/Violet_violence
Summary: After the heart stops beating,  it takes approximately 10 minutes for the brain to die from oxygen deprivation.As a doctor,  Law is well aware of this.(Law decides to make a second try of getting a marine to help Corazon).





	1. If you love the caged bird 🕊

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Xavion](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Xavion).

The boy's scream cut short nearly as soon as it cut through the silence, small mottled hands stifling back his cries. 

_No, nonononono-Cora-san! You can't, please no you can't leave me too..._

There had been so much blood, leaking into the snow, turning it red, and that was before, before Doflamingo had- no, can't think about that, can't think about that or all reason will be lost and Cora-san's sacrifice will have been for nothing he scolded himself as he stumbled and fell into the snow, the cold doing little too shock hm out of his stupor. Cold... one of the early sympoms of exsaunguation, followed by unconsciousness, then death.

_Wait... unconsciousness_, **then** _death_! Shooting upright Law gasped for breath as he stared blankly into the frozen wasteland surrounding him, thoughts a panicked whirlwind.

Cora-san could still be alive! Stumbling to his feet he looked around in vauge desperation, he could probably get back to him, Doflamingo would have left the island by now, but even so, what could he possibly do? With the exception of his new devil fruit he had nothing in the way of tools or supplies, and he had no idea how to use the thing anyways, so he might as well not even have **that**.

Suddenly, he was broken from his musings as he noticed movement in the distance, squinting slightly in an effort to clearly make out the figure he sucked in a sharp breath as it came into focus,_ a marine_ he thought with a grimace, making to hide from the figure when a thought struck him still, _Cora-san is one too,_ he glanced back_ Vergo was working for him,_ but surely it would be ridiculous for there to be more than one spy, wouldn't it?

_Would I ever be able to forgive myself if I passed up a chance to save him?_

"Hey! Help!" he screamed, taking off at run towards the marine who turned to face him as he approached, a woman, eh? That wasn't very common, was it? 

"You gotta help him!" he exclaimed as he came to a sudden stop a short distance from her, just enough to prevent her from being ably to clearly see his skin, recognize the disease in his skin. 

"What?! Help who? What are you even doing here kid?!" she asked approaching

"The man! That one in the pink coat shot him! I think he"s dying!" he spoke quickly, brushing aside the qustions and turning slightly away from her to point back towards the direction where Cora-san lay.

"What?!" She exclaimed, hand going to pull out a den den from a pouch at her waist, 

"Hurry! This way!" He shouted not giving a chance for questions he didn't want to answer, turning and running in the direction of his savior, the marine woman hot on his heels, shouting directions and requests for medical aid into the snail as she did so.

_Thank every spirit of the sea, this one might **actually** help!_

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

His scream was caught back in his throat for the second time that day, this time due to lack of breath once Corazon came into view.

_There's so much blood,_ was there really any chance of him still being alive? Desperately he scrambled forwards, checking for a pulse, dimmly aware of the marine swearing softly behind him, _please, he's all I have left.._

There! slow, yet steady beneath his fingers, for a moment it was all he his world consisted of, that assurance that he wasn't alone (again), that the only person in the world that loved him wasn't gone, was still there. Slowly, he became aware of the marine who had settled on the oposite side of the large man from him. 

"Hey, mister can you hear me? Mister? Hey kid, you know his name?" She asked, hands occupied with checking injuries, no longer solely focused on him, good, Cora-san took precidence and as long as she wasn't looking at him she was less likely to notice anything about him.

Frozen for a moment at being addressed, he quickly found his voice again

"Um, I think he said Rosi-something, and something about being a marine? ...I think that was why the pink man shot him..."

"**Rosinante**?!" came a new voice from the denden, which was sitting beside Corazon's shoulder, forgotten until that moment.

"You know him Tsuru-san?" asked the stunned marine, Law caught himself sympathizing. 

"Know him? I watched that boy grow up! He's Sengoku's boy!'" Law could only watch as instructions were shouted over the den den, listening with a vauge sense of shell shock. _Sengoku's boy._.. it had been clear listening to the two speak to each other that there had been real affection in their relationship, it was clrear that Corazon (Rosinante?) would be well cared for with these people, clear that they cared about him. _After all, he is one of them._

He shifted, uncomfortable with the thoughts running through his head. It all made sense, he had known that the brothers had been separated for fourteen years, had only been reunited one year before he had joined the family, knew that the blond was now twenty-six, meaning that he and Doflamingo had parted ways when he would have been eight years old. He couldn't remember a single occasion when they had spoken of their parents, or any other family for that matter.

Taking that together with what he had learned just that day, it made sense... he could see it, a happy childhood for the older man, under the close watch of some of the marine's higher ranking. A found family with a second father, just like he had become for Law. A family he had been willing to cut himself off from, as a consequence of simply _**helping**_ Law, a family that would clearly miss him, if the agitated tones coming from the den-den were any indication. 

"Hey kid, you okay?" He looked up to find that he was once again the subject of the woman's focus, his paranoia reminding him that it was most likely only a matter of time before she noticed the discoloration of his skin... only a matter of time before his window of escape was closed completly. He let his eyes fall to the ground, to the man that had become his caretaker, who had sacrificed so much for him, before coming to a decision, steeling his nerves as he looked up to stare into the woman's eyes.

"I, um... I have'ta pee" he muttered, shifting some more to make his embarrassed kid act as convincing as possible while starting to edge backwards.

"Oh! uh.." the woman was now glancing around awkwardly, like if she looked hard enough a restroom would magically appear among the snow drifts.

"I'll be right back! No peeking!" he shouted abruptly, before darting behind a tall snow drift, ignoring the response that of course she wouldn't peek. Waiting until he was out of sight, then circling around and taking off at a dead run in the direction of the secluded area where the two had left their small boat earlier that day, _had it really only been one day?_

"Ah, hah..." he found himself choking back his cries again, this time without the aid of his caretaker's devil fruit to give him safety, needing to get as far as possible before the marine realized anything, hopefully she would be preoccupied with taking care of Corazon. Tears blurred his sight before he roughly brushed them away, pushing himself to run faster.

_I'm sorry Cora-san, but I love you too, so..._

_I'm letting you go._


	2. And should the bird return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, this turned out more Corazon centric than I planned, was supposed to be more Law originally, but the stopping point just felt right.

He woke up too late.

Too late to meet up with Law at any rate, which was really the only thing that mattered. Apparently he had been injured badly enough that he had been uncunconscious for the better part of a month, occasionally fading into awarness in brief snaches that he didn't truely remember. These moments worried him, the possiblity that he might have said something damming sending tendrils of ice down his spine. But an enthusastic Sengoku had informed him that this was the first time he had been coherent, so that consern at least was laid the rest. Still though, the fact that Law wouldn't have waited more than a week at the neighboring island as they had agreed was the only thing he could focus on as Sengoku was telling him something about a child finding him....

"What? A child? On minion!" he exclaimed, nearly launching himself out of the hospital bed _Law would not be pleased._ Slightly startled, Sengoku recovered himself and responded.

"Yes, apparently a young boy witnessed Doflamingo shoot you, he helped one of Tsuru's officers find you"

"And where is he now?" Rociante cut in_, if it had been Law..._

"Thats just it actually, apparently after leading her to you, he claimed that he had to relieve himself and then vanished. Once you were stabilized Tsuru had a seaarch party sweep the island for him, but there was no trace of him." Of coarse not, Law would avoid a marine search party with everything he had.

"What about Doffy? Could he hav-"

"No, he was alreaady off the island by that point, the the boy would have had the leave the island by some other means..." he trailed off, giving his adoptive son a suspicious look.

"I dont suppose you know anything about him? Did you see him before you were injured?"

".. I dont remember." _Sorry Sengoku-san, but making sure Law's safe comes first.._

"You don't-"

"It's a blur, I'm not even completely sure how I wound up on Minion, I think it had something to do with preventing Doffy from getting the Op-Op no mi, but I can't remember any of the details." Speaking quickly, he spun together a story holding as much of the truth as possible without endangering himself or his boy, piecing together as many older details he had on the family as possible, _probably best to make it look like the memory loss is just about recent stuff, maybe just the last six months or so..._ he mused, focused on how best to protect the the two of them, _probably shouldn't leave Vergo out though_.. 

"Oh, I do remember one thing though!" 

"What what is it?!" was the older man's hopeful responce. 

"Vergo, the first Corazon! He was there! ...I think he might have given me a good knock to the head actually..."

"Vergo! But, I- I gave him that assignment, you mean if I hadn't you might not have been hurt like this?!" He cried, sticken. 

Heart sinking at his words causing the man such clear distress, Rociante hastened to placate the other.

"You couldn't have known... besides this puts the ball in our court." A grin slowly stretched across his face, accentuating his tattoos.

"So, he was there on your assignment huh? I have an idea." He murmured slyly.

The elder of the two quickly perked up at that, hopeful at the chance to make something out of his blunder, and gestured for him to continue. 

"Well, for starters I'm going to need you to sing me his praises." He informed his father figure with a sly smirk at the dumbfounded expression he received in responce, quickly continuing before the other had the chance to speak. 

"After all, poor amnesiac me will be only to happy to meet the man his father figure speaks so well of!" He continued, practically purring at the idea of how he would use the man who had beaten him and Law so mercilessly. 

"After all," he continued in a more serious tone, "if we were to simply arrest him then Doffy could replace him and we wouldn't know who, this way we can control what information Doffy gets fed." 

"I'll have to see if I can't confide in him of my distress over your memory loss without overplaying my hand." he mused, the two men sharing a conspiratorial smirk, the father son resembalance between them unmistakable for once.

After that things fell into place quickly, gossip spread as it always will amongst military ranks, and Rocinante was soon recieving all manner of get well soon gifts, as soon as he was able to leave his bed the blond pled his case to return to Minion, 

"It might help bring something back, besides, I think I left my favorite sweater in the boat I took there, I want to see if I can't find it, and maybe that kid..." 

"The one that found you? I suppose we never did find any trace of him..." 

"Perhaps he lives on the next island over, Swallow was rather close wasn't it? Maybe he had a fishing boat or something, I just... I want to check is all." He trailed off, giving a small shrug. He really did want that sweater back, if only to have something besides the bloodied clothes he'd been recovered in to remember his time with Law by, and while he knew that odds were slimmier than slim that Law would still be in the area, he had to look, just in case. 

In the end there was no trace of his things or his boy on Minion, Swallow however was another story, his heart had nearly stoped in his chest when he found the wreckage of the small boat he had traveled to Minion in along with Law washed up on Swallows shore, some distance from the civilisation, only truly feeling able to breath again after his frenzied seach turned up the remains of a camp not far off, only then turning his search towards the town. After a short while his efforts of a few discreet questions and a liberal amount of eves dropping were rewarded with a few vague recollections of a child with a spotted hat, only made memorable for having apparetly made off with a pair of the islands resident trouble makers.

_Thank god, you're alright, you're not alone, did you make some friends Law? _

_I want see you again,_

_I guess that even if I'm back among Marine ranks, at the end of the day Law, _

_I'm yours to keep._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanons I picked up from these works play a significant part in this fic. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15259983/chapters/35439417  
https://archiveofourown.org/series/1325180


	3. We all live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In honor of my dog turning 3, I decided to push myself to finally finish editing thing chapter and get it up already (seriously, it's been written and half edited for months now).

The tall blond took a deep breath as he stepped onto the dock. Bellemere had always spoken of the island with a sort of wistfullness, though they both knew that she was unlikely to ever return, _My family grew the best mikans Roci, you have to try them someday!_

He had been shaken when he had heard of her death, and had always meant to visit Cocoyashi as a way of paying his last respects _And I **have to** get some tangerines_ he mused to himself grimly, as he looked around, now just where should he go about buying some?

He wandered further into the town proper, musing that it was a shame that Sengoku hadn't been able to accompany him, the older man had only been able to leave his duties for as long as he had on such short notice due to Rocinante being under his direct command as an excuss, and as such their reunion after four years had been strictly buisness, but that was alright, Sengoku had a good amount of vacation time stored up, from refusing to take any time away while the blond was undercover, and after four years Rocinante had a good deal stored up himself, not even taking into acount the medical leave that he was still on, he was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't see the small orange haired girl dart across his path untill he was tripping over her. 

"S-sorry!" he stammered

"Nami! What the hell buster!?"

"I'm so sorry I wasn't looking-Bell?" he cut himself off as his eyes landed on the pink haired woman fusing over the little girl he had tripped over, she froze and turned away from the child to meet his eyes, face going pale 

"R-roci?"

_ **Meanwhile** _

"And that concludes my report sir."

"Yes, thank you Vergo, very good, you're free to go." Sengoku stated flaty, shuffling some papers on his desk. Vergo moved to leave the room, then paused.

"Sir? if I may.." the fleet admiral cocked an eyebrow and gestured for the other man to continue hiding his simmering rage towards the other with a long learned professional demeanour. 

"I had heard that commander Rocinante was suffering from some memory loss... I hope it wasn't severe enough to have an imact on his report regarding the Doflamingo family?" _I'm sure_ Sengoku thought darkly, internally rolling his eyes. 

"I'm afraid so." he replied with false calm,

"He has barely been able to give us any information from his time undercover, as it is, it's something of a miracle that he even survived.." he continued, allowing his voice to trail off slightly.

"Well, we are all glad that the Commander was able to pull through Sir." Sengoku valiantly surpressed his urge to scoff. 

"Yes... I'm not sure if you're aware, but I took Rocinante in when he was just a chld, he's a son to me, if he hadn't made it... well, I dare say I would have had no other recourse but to deal with Doflamingo myself, in fact, now that I think of it, I would take it upon myself to deal with that man if anything were to happen to Rociante."

"Sir?" Vergo replied, faintly stunned. Sengoku turned to meet the other man's gaze directly, 

"Well, it is Rociante's dearest wish that his brother be stopped, that's the reason he took that assignment in the first place. If anything were too happen to him he would be unable to rest in peace as long as Doflamingo continued to run free, it would be my duty as his adoptive father to see to putting an end to that overgrown flamingo's reign." He stated in a perfectly matter of fact tone, Vergo didn't need to know that as fleet admiral his hands would be tied on the matter, bound by his duties to stay out of such a minor matter, the point was to ensure that the mole wouldn't even think to try anything with his boy.

"I see sir, if I may be excused?" as he left the spy missed the look directed towards his back, _this round goes to me I believe _he mused to himself with no small amount of satisfaction.

Later that night Doflamingo recived a report from his second that his brother was in a protected position and could not be safely dealt with.

**On Cocoyashi**

"So, kids huh?" the blond murmured, looking from the afore mentioned children running ahead to the woman walking along side him.

"Yeah." she muttered in response, gripping her bag of groceries a little tighter, knuckles white. He shot that bag a brief glance, not wanting her to realize his focus on it. It was too little food for herself and two growing children, even with the amber lead draining Law's appetite the two of them had still eaten more than the pinkette's bag suggested. He had watched her carefully make her selections before they left the town proper, patiently waiting for her to finish making her purchases, not wanting to frighten her children by dragging her into an alley and questioning her as he was rather tempted to do, though Law would probably have approved of that course of action he couldnt help but think fondly, before he returned his thoughts back the the bag in his one time friend's arms_. _

_It's not enough, not for a family of three at least,_ he would have just assumed that it was just picking up a few things they had run out of, maybe a few ingedients for a particular recipe, if it hadn't been for the way Bellemere had carefully counted out every coin she had handed over, had given the higher value items regretful glances, had looked just a little too thin, her family's clothes showing a bit more wear than the townspeople, his stomach tightened slightly at the implications, but kept his mouth shut. The subject would keep, and it definitely wasn't one that he would broach in front of the girls, innocent in a way he had never known Law to be. 

"Is that why you let yourself be listed as dead?" he asked instead, looking at the two little girls, chattering loudly with one another, somehow it was far to easy to picture a boy with a spotted hat along side them, Law always had been rather good with Baby 5...

"I- yeah.... They needed me." she choked out, her tone vaguely desperate. He gave her a brief glance, before looking back at the children, who were now shouting that their house was just around the next bend, with his greater height Rocinante could just see it, a tiny little thing surrounded by tangerine trees, far too small for a family of three, barely big enough for one really. He looked back down at the girls, remembered white patched skin, and angry, pain filled eyes.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." he murmured, barely even noticing the sharp look she gave him.

He turned to address the girls as they approached the house.

"Why don't you two go play while I help your mother put things away?" he suggested in a bright tone, smiling down at them, they blinked up at him, before turning to give their mother a questioning look.

"It's okay, just make sure you get back in time to wash up for dinner." She reassured them with a smile,

"Its been a long time since I last saw Roci-kun, so we have a lot of catching up to do. It'd probably be pretty boring for you, so scram!" She laughed as the girls brightened and ran off into the trees with shrieking peals of laughter following them. Once the girls where out of sight the woman turned stiffly and entered the house. The blond quickly following her, half worried she would slam the door on him given the chance.

"Sit."

"I did say I'd help you."

"Sit, Roci. Knowing you, half the shopping would be ruined and the house would probably catch fire." she bluntly retorted, not even looking at him as she spoke, the blond quickly sat in one of the kitchen chairs without further argument. Silence reigned in the small house.

"I missed you, I wanted to come here when I first heard that you were dead, but it never seemed like the right time."  
"So what made this the right time?" she asked,  
"Medical leave." That got him another look, held a bit longer this time.  
"I might have blown my cover, after a four year mission." He muttered, not meeting her eyes.  
"What the hell hapened!" She exclaimed, turning sharply and banging her hands down on the tabletop. He paused a moment, hesitant, then looked her in the eye and smiled softly.  
"A kid." He gave her a moment to process this,  
"Bratty little thing, joined up with the crew I was undercover with when he was just ten, stabbed me in the back with a sword a week later, he was so angry..." a pause,

"He was in so much pain, Bell." his own voice shook at the thought of how much that tiny little boy had been suffering.  
"But what does that have to do with your cover getting blown?" She exclaimed shaking her head in confusion as she turned to check on her soup. He twisted his hands together, pondering how to answer as Bellemere added a few more items to her soup, before nodding and placing a lid on the pot and coming to sit across from the blond and giving him a steady look.  
"So what happened with the kid?" he pursed his lips briefly, then spoke.

"He was sick, really sick, only had a few years left to live when he joined up, and I- I just couldnt stand by and watch him to die by inches any longer! He just accepted it, and that just made it so much worse Bell! He was always hurting, and sometimes he could barely eat, or hed just sleep all day with a fever, sometimes he didn't even seem to really know where he was!" Those times had been the worst, when he frogot where and when he was and would call for his parents, it broke his heart when that happened, he had never really dared ask if he remembered when that happened.  
"I just couldn't stand by and do nothing, I wound up abandoning my post to look for a doctor that would treat him, but everywhere we went .." here he trailed off, unable to speak of those 6 months of disappointment, of doctors that called a sick child monster, of burnt out hospitals...  
"Then we finally got lucky, the captian I had been undercover with contacted me about a devils fruit tuurning up, the Barrel pirates were selling the Op-Op no mi to the Marines for 5 billion belli, the Captain wanted it for the internal youth operation. Law, his parents were doctors, they taught him, he just devoured any books we got him on medicine, such a brillant little boy..." He was rambeling now, everything he hadn't been able to tell Sengoku finally spilling out.  
"I betrayed everyone, the crew, Sengoku-san, ... I left Law alone... he's only thirteen, just a little boy.. he just barely comes up to my knees..." He barreled on, ignoring the small smirk she made at the mention of his boys size in comparison to himself. 

"I stole the fruit and gave it to Law, and the only reason I'm still alive is because I was able to hide it." "How?" she asked, voice soft, it was the first time she had spoken since he had started pouring his heart out in earnest.  
"Doffy shot me, left me to die." he uttered in a low voice, fists curling at the memory. Not noticing his companions soft gasp at his brothers name.

"After I passed out Law led a nearby solider to me... little bratt snuck off while she was busy with my injuries." he added, with a rueful smile.

"Took me awhile to wake up, and when I did I told Sengoku-san I coudn't remember what happened. He knows the rough details, everything I could give him on Doffy without putting Law in danger.... we're going to take advantage of that spy he has in the Marines." here the blond made a grimly satisfied expression, but it fell away a moment later, finally looking up to meet her eyes.  
"I don't regret it, not any of it, do you know why?" she had a good idea, _but_.  
"Tell me." she said, taking his hand in hers.  
"Law made it out, I wasn't able to catch up to him after I go off bedrest, but I caught his trail where we had planned to meet up, he got away from Doffy and from what I was able to piece together was in better health than he'd been in for months." he proclaimed, gripping her hand tightly.  
"All I care about is making sure he's alright!" He leaned over their joined hands with tears in his eyes, they sat like that for awhile while the blond sobbed silently, when the appoarching sounds of the children snapped them out of it, he looked away, wiping at his eyes, suddenly bashful at having spilled everything out to her. The pinkette stood, moving to check her soup,

"One last question." she murmed gently.

"Huh?" he turned to look at her, still rattled from his emotional outporing.  
"Why did you tell me all this? You would be in huge trouble if anyone found out, I know we used to be close, but this is the first time youve seen me in years, what makes you so sure you can trust me?" she bit out, feeling almost angry with the tall man for his recklessness.  
"The same reason you know I'm not going to turn you in as a deserter, we're in the same boat now." He answered with a soft smile, tilting his head to gesture in the direction of the approaching voices of her daughters. She stared at him, slightly stunned before a flush rose to her cheeks._ Of course, we both have children to think about_, _leave it to Roci to see and plan for a new common ground._

She smiled warmly back at him, of course it was like this, _how could I have forgotten_ she wondered, staring at the large man sitting in her kitchen, feeling more like a teenager than she had in years, and as her daughters burst into the house she felt none of her earlier worry, Roci wouldn't do anythng to ruin the life she had built here, no more than she would do anything to ruin the careful web of deceptions he had spun, after all there was a boy out there that was going to need his father back at some point, just as her girls needed her. Also she mused with a smile as she directed her girls to wash the dirt from their faces and hands, she had someone special to introduce them to now.

Afterall, while Genzo was a good father figure to her girls, she had never seen him in any sort of romantic light, and she thought as a nervous Rociante fielded questions from an enquisitive and half washed Nami, he did already have experience with children. _I'll have to ask him how long he can stay_ she thought as she ignored the slightly panicked looks he was shooting her as Nojiko joined her sister in interrogating him in favor of serving soup into bowls.

"Hope your hungry!" she chirped, smiling wider at the look he was giving her as her childern climbed up into his lap.

OoOoO 

  
After two years, an established repeating order of tangerine perserves and and a very tense stay at his adoptive fathers house that they only ever visited when on vacation, Sengoku knew that he wasn't telling him everything about minion but wouldn't push him about it, wouldn't push the younger man to lie to him any more than he had too, and he was grateful for it. He really rather suspected that the older man had an inkling of just what had really happened on minion, but was avoiding doing anything that he wasn't outright obligated to do as fleet admrial, it made things a bit stiff and formal between the two of them for awhile, but it had been set aside easly enough now he was finally back on the sea, sailing around serving Justice on the blues was much superior to doing so from behind a desk, even if it did mean being much more frequently submurged he mused to himself as he was hauled back up on deck, spitting out water and informing his men of the yellow sea king he had caught a glimpse of while he was under, the men quickly going on alert and moving to sail in a different direction than he had glimpsed the distant form.  
Several meters under the seas surface, golden eyes tracked the shadow of the Marine ship, a smile forming on their owners face.

"It's been a long time time, Cora-san." he murmered, safe in his underwater home,  
_in a yellow submarine._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is sorta turning into a game of "how many people can I save before the original storyline gets completely bent out of shape ". Sorta thinking of something along the lines of ASL in red.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I dealt with all the typos, but please tell me if I missed any.  



End file.
